The Making of: Toys "R" Us Cover

My approved sketch for Toys "R" Us. The scene had to be a snowy holiday setting with toys that would appeal to young boys and girls. I wasn't able to add a Santa or anything pertaining to a certain religion. I went for a little Christmas village type of town, small and cozy.

Some work in progress shots I had taken to send over to the client as I was working. Most of the buildings are made form cardboard and trees from paper. I looked up a few different origami tree options and this style fit closest to the look I was going for. Sometimes it's more convenient to use other mediums than to sculpt everything from clay, especially with a short deadline. The bear's face had to be changed to a more "toy-like" appearance, apparently he looked too life like previously.

On set at the shoot. The table is larger than it appears in this photo.

The hot air balloon and mountains had to be strung to stay in place. As for the snow, nothing can really beat capturing the natural sparkle of it like sugar (7 packs to be exact).

This is the cover you'll find in all Toys "R" Us stores all over Canada. I picked up a few copies for myself of course. It's kind of a big deal to have 7 million of these bad boys printed.  This printed version is a slightly different from my own color-wise,  I went in a alternate direction than the retoucher. My banner-free version is below.

Credits

Ageny: Open. A Creative Company

Client:  Toys "R" Us

Photography: Valerie Myronenko

Producer:  Lunch Inc. 

Multimedia: PixelPusher